www.erp-recycling.co.ukHigh quality, cost effective compliance.

arc21, the waste partnership representing 11 local authorities in Northern Ireland, secured funding for Bryson Electrical Recycling to roll out their reuse programme across most Northern Irish councils, providing local communities with affordable refurbished goods and helping sustain Bryson’s extensive charity work. With the money from the funding, Arc Direct — a brand new store selling quality refurbished white goods — opened in Belfast in May 2012. The store was opened by Alex Attwood, then Minister of the Environment on the Northern Ireland Executive. In addition to providing new jobs (18 staff work at Arc Direct), six trainees have also been taken on as part of the ‘Steps to Work’ programme.

On Saturday 7 April 2012, On Your Behalf did a feature on reuse and recycling on BBC Radio Ulster. The programme included an interview at the new Arc Direct store with Elaine Coleman from Bryson Electrical Recycling and Charlotte Budd, ERP UK’s regional account manager.

With ERP’s support, arc21, Dumfries & Galloway Council and Resource Efficiency Wales secured funding from the WEEE Local Authority Project Fund in August 2011. The Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) provides the funding to support local authorities and partner organisations in activities aimed at increasing the separate collection of household WEEE for reuse and recycling. The fund, which had approximately £650,000 to allocate to projects, was three times over-subscribed so the selection process was extremely competitive. In all, ERP’s local authority partners received 30% of the total funding available. ERP also contributed matched funding from its own e-waste partnership fund to support the individual and regional applications.

Background to the DTSUnder the UK WEEE Regulations, the DTS offers retailers an alternative to offering customers in-store take-back by providing funds to support local authorities with the reuse and recycling of unwanted electrical items. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills administers the WEEE Local Authority Project Fund.

ARC21

DTS Success for Local Authorities in Northern Ireland, Scotland and South East Wales

www.erp-recycling.co.ukHigh quality, cost effective compliance.

On behalf of the ten South East Wales regional authorities, Resource Efficiency Wales secured funding for a programme of reuse and recycling events at schools in South East Wales in autumn 2012.

WEEE Reuse Recycle 2012 targeted the high volumes of small domestic appliances (SDA) that are found in many households. Many of these items can be reused or, if broken, are suitable for recycling. Pupils were encouraged to bring WEEE from home and 40 schools (four per local authority) took part in the initiative, competing against one another to collect the greatest weight on average of SDA per pupil for either reuse or recycling. Any SDA that could be reused or repaired went to nominated third sector organisations in each authority for use by low income families; the rest was recycled in South East Wales.

The winning school was Greenfield School in Merthyr Tydfil where pupils collected an average of 6.4 kilograms of WEEE per pupil. Sam Warburton, the Wales’ and British & Irish Lions’ rugby captain, presented the prize to the winning school at a special awards ceremony on 24 January 2013. Almost 27 tonnes of WEEE was collected across all schools with a total of 3 tonnes made available for reuse in the shops of the community organisations.

WEEE Reuse Recycle 2012 established partnerships with third sector community re-use organisations within each local authority. All of the re-use organisations that were involved in the campaign were financially supported to contribute to this initiative. The funding was also used to send staff on portable appliance testing (PAT) training courses and provide PAT testing equipment.

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY COUNCILDumfries & Galloway Council secured funding for a WEEE recycling campaign, distributing free WEEE recycling bags to residents for storing and then carrying SDA to recycling centres and banks, rather than throwing it in the residual bin. The Council distributed the bags through its network of libraries and customer service centres and advertised the campaign through tags on residents’ bins, leaflets at collection points and an advert in the local paper.

The money was also used to fund two new SDA recycling banks in Langholm and Annan, providing in-town recycling facilities for those residents who cannot travel to the recycling centres in the area. Volunteers from Key Housing Association Ltd — an organisation that provides support for adults with learning disabilities — monitor the sites where the WEEE banks are installed on the council’s behalf. Since April 2012, over 1.9 tonnes of WEEE has been collected for recycling in the two SDA recycling banks.

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY WALES